Europe isn’t known for its elephants. At least, the three species of elephant that traverse Earth today — the African elephants Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta cyclotis and the Asian elephant Elephas maximus — aren’t famous for wandering through Europe. But not too long ago, the straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus lived throughout the continent, leaving a lasting trace on the European terrain. An April 2025 study in Frontiers in Biogeography takes another look at these extin ...read more

Whenever a solar eclipse occurs, life seems to stand still for a brief moment. Humans watch the sky, animals display eccentric behaviors, but what about plants? It turns out that plant life has its own patented way of dealing with this astronomical event. A new study has shown that trees react to solar eclipses and even anticipate them hours in advance, synchronizing their bioelectrical signals in preparation.The study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, details this hidden pow ...read more

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano blasted gas and ash 30 miles into the atmosphere, it definitely made waves. The question is, what kind? The eruption may have been the largest in a half century — and the biggest since satellites began collecting data on such events. NASA estimated the volcanic eruption released 300 to 600 times as much energy as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.That energy rippled above most clouds and weather. It even reached Earth’s upper atmosphere, where sa ...read more

Ayahuasca — a psychedelic medicine traditionally used by Indigenous communities in South America — has become fashionable, with celebrities like the musician Sting, actress Lindsay Lohan, and NFL quarterback Aaron Rogers drinking it to take a trip into their subconscious minds. When used to treat mental health, some studies have shown that the psychedelic can be effective. An article in the journal PLOS Mental Health that examines what conditions are most likely to lead to a positive outcome ...read more

More studies are exposing that nature can soothe the mind and body, but new research shows that idyllic outdoor scenes may also soothe a more visceral type of pain.“From past studies we know that being in contact with nature is associated with this very broad range of beneficial effects for human physical and mental health,” says Maximilian Steininger, an environmental neuroscientist at the University of Vienna.But since this past research relied on participants self-reporting their pain, th ...read more

There is a lot we can learn from our caveman ancestors. Their fossils help us trace the evolution of the human species. Their lifestyle paints a picture of how we adapted to survive in difficult environments. But what about their skincare routine?The latest social media skincare trend that everyone is talking about is the caveman method. The trend has been gaining popularity lately thanks to TikTok user who claims to have not washed her face in six weeks. The caveman skincare method is a minima ...read more

We often picture the Caribbean as a place to relax and escape life’s challenges. Evidently, so too did the sebecid — a tall crocodile-like species that replaced the dinosaur as an apex predator. Paleontologists have thought the species went extinct about 11 million years ago. Instead, the creature that some describe as a cross between a greyhound and a crocodile was just biding its time on tropical islands.Signs of Caribbean Apex PredatorPaleontologists unearthed one sebecid tooth and two in ...read more

Around 30 percent of people have Staphylococcus aureus bacteria — the primary bacterial culprit behind staphylococcal infections — somewhere on their skin or in their nose. In most cases, these spherically shaped bacteria stay out of trouble. But that’s only in most cases. When presented with open wounds, scrapes, and scratches, S. aureus can invade and infect the body, and with serious consequences. In the skin, staph infections can cause boils, blisters, and inflammation. In the blood, t ...read more

The universal need to be on time keeps everyone on the move, shaping society into a permanently well-oiled machine. Whether you find yourself glancing at a clock on the wall or checking your phone, the time you constantly see is the product of a meticulous system upheld by the world’s timekeepers. In the U.S., a new atomic clock called NIST-F4 has already proven to be one of the most precise timekeepers yet. Assembled by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST-F ...read more

While breast cancer rates for women aged 20 to 49 have gradually grown over the past 20 years, mortality from all forms of the disease and in all racial and ethnic groups have declined significantly from 2010 to 2020 with an even bigger dip in deaths after 2016, according to data presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Chicago.Breast Cancer Research and ScreeningGreater access to screening, advancements in treatment options, and a movement toward precisio ...read more